You are here

Gerard Robinson

Resident Fellow, AEI & Former Florida Commissioner of Education

Gerard Robinson is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he works on education policy issues including choice in public and private schools, regulatory development and implementation of K-12 laws, the role of for-profit institutions in education, prison education and reentry, rural education, and the role of community colleges and historically black colleges and universities in adult advancement. Robinson served as commissioner of education for the state of Florida and secretary of education for the Commonwealth of Virginia. As president of the Black Alliance for Educational Options, Robinson worked to ensure that children in low-income and working-class black families in several states and the District of Columbia were given the opportunity to attend good schools. Throughout his career he has evaluated the effects of reform initiatives on parental choice and student achievement and advocated for laws to improve delivery of teaching and learning.

Breathtaking results from yet another study, and the announcement that three prominent Boston lawyers plan to mount a constitutional challenge to Massachusetts' charter public school cap, have reignited the seemingly endless debate about charter schools' place in the Commonwealth's education marketplace.

Last Friday’s 6-3 decision by the Washington Supreme Court that declared unconstitutional a charter school law — one approved by 1.5 million voters — is an existential threat to the parental choice movement in the Evergreen State and across the nation. Here is why.